Diabetic retinopathy is an important cause of blindness, and occurs as a result of long-term accumulated damage to the small blood vessels in the retina. 2.6% of global blindness can be attributed to diabetes.

Diabetes is among the leading causes of kidney failure.

Umbilical Cord Lining Stem Cells could one day provide treatment strategies for this disease. Bank your child’s umbilical cord lining with GlobalCord and open up a future of regenerative therapies using this unique source of stem cells.

What Are Cord Lining Stem Cells?

Umbilical cord blood is rich with stem cells — the undifferentiated “blank” cells that can be prodded to morph into more specialized cells. But the amniotic membrane that forms the outer lining of the umbilical cord is an even richer source of stem cells. The umbilical cord lining, in fact, has the highest yield of stem cells of any tissue in the human body.

For instance, although bone marrow is a rich source of stem cells in adults, one bone marrow extraction can only yield approximately 2 million mesenchymal stem cells — the cells that can morph into solid organ cells such as muscle, bone, cartilage and nerve cells.

However, just 330 cm2 of your baby’s smooth, mucus-producing cord lining membrane can yield, in the first growth generation, 6 billion mesenchymal stem cells … plus another 6 billion epithelial stem cells. Scientists at CellResearch Corporation have successfully grown the cells for 30 generations, therefore the potential cell yield is much, much higher at 6,000,000,00030- a very large number indeed.

Epithelial cells can become skin cells, mucosal membrane cells, and cells of certain organs such as the liver and pancreatic islets. It is these pancreatic islet cells that secrete insulin which controls the blood sugar levels in the body. When circulating levels of sugar are high (e.g. after a meal), insulin stimulates the cells to absorb glucose, resulting in a fall in circulating blood sugar levels.

What’s So Special About Cord Lining Stem Cells?

It’s not just the numbers of stem cells available in the umbilical cord lining that make them so special and so bankable: It’s the quality of the stem cells themselves.

Because they are taken harmlessly and ethically from the umbilical cord afterbirth, they are, in effect, neonatal cells, and therefore young, vigorous, and robust.

How May Umbilical Cord Lining Stem Cells Help Diabetes?

At CellResearch Corporation, the parent company of GlobalCord, our research partners from the National University of Singapore and the National Cancer Centre Singapore have successfully differentiated cord lining epithelial stem cells into pancreatic islet cells that secrete insulin. The glucose receptors found on these cells- necessary for the feedback function that insulin provides- also appears to be higher than islet cells differentiated from other types of stem cells.

These new islet cells could potentially be transplanted into patients with diabetes to help produce insulin — once the feedback mechanism linked to insulin release is perfected. Interestingly, these stem cell derived islet cells also produce HLA-G and HLA-E, which have immunosuppressant functions to prevent rejection of transplanted umbilical cord lining epithelial cells.

Umbilical cord lining stem cells have shown great efficacy in indolent wound healing, and a USFDA Trial is underway to assess the efficacy of Umbilical Cord Lining Mesenchymal Cells on the Healing of Chronic Diabetic Foot Ulcers.

Bank Now to Withdraw Later

If you arrange to preserve and store your baby’s umbilical cord at birth, it could be ready to produce the cells needed for diabetic therapies in future. Banking with GlobalCord is the safest choice. Umbilical cords licensed by GlobalCord are the only ones covered under the patent for Cord Lining Stem Cell therapeutic applications. Non GlobalCord licensed umbilical cords may be rejected as the tissue was not processed and preserved using our proprietary techniques for optimum extraction and preservation of stem cells.

Make an informed choice. Select a cord banking service that is licensed to offer complete coverage for all stem cell therapies derived from your stored cord.

Umbilical cord lining tissue banked by non-licensed cord blood banks may not provide the stem cell yield or quality that CellResearch Corporation’s proprietary and patented protocols can provide — this may affect its suitability for future therapeutic use. In addition, these blood banks and medical institutions that offer CellResearch Corporation's patented protocols — which include ALL cord lining stem cell therapies — are at risk of patent infringement.

GlobalCord is operated by CellResearch Corporation and its partners. Cords banked through GlobalCord are covered by CellResearch Corporation’s patent licensure which extends to 41 territories around the world, including the U.S.A.

Contact GlobalCord today to find out how to store your baby’s cord, so that baby’s stem cells are ready when and if baby, your parents, or another family member needs them. You can also email us directly at info@cellresearchcorp.com.